The attributes of God

The Truth of God

An attribute of God · Numbers 23:19

The truth of God means he is entirely reliable and cannot lie. He is the God of truth, whose word is true from the beginning, and who is himself the truth. God is not a man, that he should lie, Scripture says; what he says, he does, and what he promises, he makes good. Because God is true, his word can bear the whole weight of our lives, in life and in death.

God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?Numbers 23:19 (KJV)

What the truth of God means

To say God is true means several things that hold together. He is the true God, real and genuine, as opposed to the idols that are nothing. He is truthful, always speaking what is real and never deceiving. And he is faithful to his word, making good everything he says. Truth in God is not merely that he tells the truth, but that he is the truth, the ground of all reality, the standard against which everything else is measured true or false.

This means there is no gap in God between his words and his character, no pretense, no spin, no hidden agenda behind what he says. With us, words can mislead; we say one thing and mean another, or promise what we cannot deliver. Not so with God. It is impossible for God to lie. His truth is not an effort he makes but a perfection he is. Every word he has spoken is trustworthy, and every promise he has made is as good as done, for the same power and holiness that make him God make it impossible for him to be false.

How the Bible reveals it

Balaam, hired to curse Israel, could only speak the truth about God: God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? The rhetorical questions expect one answer: of course he will do it. God's word never returns void; it accomplishes what he pleases. The Scriptures are called the word of truth, and God's law, precepts, and promises are all called true and faithful.

The Psalms rest on it: thy word is true from the beginning, and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever. When Jesus prayed for his disciples, he said, thy word is truth. Titus speaks of God, that cannot lie, having promised eternal life before the world began. And Hebrews says that by two immutable things, his promise and his oath, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation. The whole confidence of faith stands on the simple fact that God tells the truth.

Common misunderstandings

Some treat God's promises as too good to be true, quietly bracing for him to fail them as people have. But to doubt God's word is not humility; it is, however unintentionally, to make him a liar, as if his word were less sure than a human being's. The believing response to a promise of God is not cautious hope but settled confidence, for he cannot lie.

Others confuse the difficulty of understanding God's truth with a defect in it. Because his ways are higher than ours, we may not yet see how a promise will be kept, or how apparent contradictions in our experience resolve. But not understanding how is very different from having reason to doubt whether. And some imagine truth is cold, a matter of correct facts only. In God, truth is warm and personal; it is the truthfulness of a Father who keeps his word to his children, and the reliability on which a whole life may safely rest.

Why the truth of God is good news

Everything in the Christian life leans on the trustworthiness of God's word. We are saved by believing his promises, we live by taking him at his word, and we die in the hope of what he has said. If God could lie, the ground would give way beneath us. But he cannot, and so every promise in Scripture is money in the bank, sure and certain. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but his words shall not pass away.

This gives the believer a place to stand against fear and doubt. When feelings say God has forgotten, his word says otherwise, and his word is truer than our feelings. When circumstances seem to deny a promise, we may hold the promise still, for the God who made it cannot go back on it. Let God be true, Paul says, though every man be found false. To build on the word of the God who cannot lie is to build on rock, and the storms will not wash it away.

How the truth of God is seen in Jesus Christ

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. The truth of God is not only spoken by him; it is embodied in him. He is full of grace and truth, the faithful and true witness, in whom every promise of God is yes and amen. Everything the true God had ever pledged came true in Christ, who fulfilled the promises to Abraham and David and the prophets down to the smallest detail.

He is the truth we can trust with our souls. He does not flatter or deceive; he tells us the truth about our sin and the truth about his love, and both are for our healing. He kept his word to rise on the third day, and he will keep his word to come again and to receive his own. Because he is the truth, we can stake everything on him. If any word he ever spoke could fail, we would be lost; because none can, we are safe. Ye shall know the truth, he said, and the truth shall make you free.

A note offered humbly and for all Christians: God is one, simple, and undivided in his being, and these attributes are not parts of him but the one God seen from many sides. His holiness is loving, his love is holy, his justice is merciful, and his mercy is just. He is also greater than all our words, and no page can contain him. What we can say, we say only because he has graciously revealed it, above all in Jesus Christ, who is the image of the invisible God.

Related: The Faithfulness of God · The Immutability of God · Who is Jesus? · All the attributes of God